Pirates!!! but mostly football talk

4/17/09: Nothing awesome happened in my life today I don't think but something awesome did keep happening on NPR. The four Swedish guys would run a site called PirateBay.com , which is a file sharing hub, got sentenced to a year in jail and 3.5mil in fines. The awesome part is twofold. 1) One of the guys used the plot of Karate Kid to describe their situation, saying that they are being bullied but will win in the end, only he went into crazy detail. So NPR reporters had to remind each other what happens in the movie, which was pretty great for me. 2) The suit has inspired a new political party in Sweden, called the Pirate party, whose main objective is copyright reform. If I need to tell you why that is awesome, you probably won't get the rest of what I write either, so give up.

Holly told me tonight that I "was a person of many interests, but few passions." Those Asians and their fortune cookiesque (cookiest?) insight.

Sports Section: So the Eagles signed Jason Peters. This is fantastic and a total upgrade from Trey Thomas. Young, stud, lineman are basically where it's at as far as free agency because their performance is so much more predictable than a skill position. And because they matter more. This isn't hard to get. People with that body type are relatively rare. Which means a smaller pool of athletes. Which means both a higher variance between athleticism, even at the top, and scarcity of talent in general. Whereas a running back body is a dime a dozen, so although impressive, there are a ton of guys who can run fast which means you shouldn't be paying for them, even the best ones. Because they guy almost as good is so close that its basically the same thing. And straight on down the line until you shouldn't be devoting resources to it at all. Obviously my position is not that extreme but more and more I feel like the Eagles really are out "Moneyballing" other NFL teams. They do a good job caring about what matters (in most things) and ignoring the rest. They keep their team young and cheap, which is super conveinent because young and hungry is what you want anyway. Look at our linebackers. All no name, young guys, that we pay peanuts but who are going to be a top 5 core next year. I liked Brain Dawkins. But is he worth what he is getting paid in Denver? hint: not close. Last year they got the best player in free agency in A. Samuel. He is not a shut down corner, but that's not how they do things on defense anyway. Plus, I always had the idea that your best corner should defend their weaker receiver with no help and then that let's you roll a safety to help the other side anyway. Not sure why this doesn't happen. I am on their team as far as receivers go as well, for the record. Its really a shame that a great quarterback is such a luck of the draw kind of thing considering how important it is to winning. But all things equal, I don't mind being the new Buffalo Bills. If you asked me, I would tell you that I don't care that much about football. But I sure do have lots of ideas about it so maybe I am tricking myself. Ask me about going for it on 4th down some day. Until then, I'm blaming Nick Neary for any geeking out I do about sports.